


home

by Mephilia_Venus



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), background Byleth/Dorothea, hey look mom i successfully wrote fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23660944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mephilia_Venus/pseuds/Mephilia_Venus
Summary: After the war, Mercedes and Annette find some air still left to be cleared.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Mercedes von Martritz
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clokcwork_dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clokcwork_dragon/gifts).



> happy birthday to one of my dearest friends! :heart:

“You know, Mercie... I thought about you every day.”

Mercedes looked at where Annette sat by her side, on a bench shaded by a great tree in the courtyard of Garreg Mach. Even after the war, so much around them remained to be done regarding the state of the monastery. Seeing the wreckage after its sacking at the hands of Edelgard’s army had hurt Mercedes when she first returned. She knew it would continue doing so until the day the final stone was set back in place.

Annette’s return, though - it had felt like the beginning of something. A nature of the monastery, as Mercedes knew and loved it, being set right.

“I did too, Annie. You must know that!”

“No! Well, I mean - yeah, I’m sure you must have. It’s just...” Annette’s face scrunched up like it always did when she wasn’t sure what to say. She slumped forward, elbows on her knees as she looked out over the Officer’s Academy. This time next week, it would be swarming with the monastery’s first class of new students in over five years.

“I kept thinking about that last fight we had. Before Edelgard... you know.” Annette still wasn’t looking at her, and by the tone of her voice, it wasn’t a memory she liked bringing up either. “For almost five years, I was in Fhirdiad, terrified the last time we ever properly spoke would have been a misunderstanding.”

“Annie, you mustn’t keep blaming yourself for that!” Mercedes shook her head, reaching an arm around Annette’s shoulder. “The fault was entirely mine. You know I understand that now. I think if this war proved anything, it’s that we’re equally capable of protecting each other.”

Annette laughed. “That’s fair. Remember the battle of Fhirdiad? I would have been done for when that creation of Cornelia’s came for me if you hadn’t rushed in.”

“Or Fort Merceus! I don’t know why the Death Knight hesitated when he saw me, of all people, but you were the one who took him down because of it!”

Annette pumped her fist in the air at the recollection of the victory, but then her face fell again. “I don’t know, Mercie. I’m not sure I’m at a point where I can feel proud of everything I did, even under the professor’s command. I mean, we knew the Death Knight was a bad man, but what about Caspar and Linhardt? They were our friends once, and they were there, too. But Dedue and Ingrid... didn’t spare them.”

Mercedes nodded. “I understand that well. I didn’t like any part of the war. How _final_ it all felt.” She leaned against Annette, just as they had at the end of many a night in their school days. The shorter woman had always fit against her so well. “I was scared too, you know. Retreating to Fhirdiad wasn’t an option for me. I wound up moving between whatever churches needed an extra pair of hands, just counting down the days until the Millennium Festival. We all thought that Dimitri was dead. It was the only real thing I had to hope for - that I might at least be reunited with you.”

It was easier to say this now that the war was over, and they had both made it out the other side. Not as they had been before, but - life had returned to as normal as Mercedes believed it could be for the Blue Lion Royal Guard.

“Yeah,” Annette breathed. “And, now that we are here and alive, Mercie -” She broke away from Mercedes, looking down at her feet. “There is, uh, something I should probably tell you.”

“What on Earth is left?” Mercedes chuckled, unable to help herself at the flush that crept up Annette’s neck. “You’re my best friend, Annie. You always have been, ever since our days at the Royal School of Sorcery. There’s not a secret we could possibly still be keeping from each other!” Annette made a face at that, and Mercedes gasped. “Unless... Annie, have you fallen in love with someone?”

“Gah!” Annette’s face was pinker than any blush could achieve as she jumped up from the bench. “Is it really that obvious?”

“Annette Fantine Dominic! You must tell me everything! Is it Felix? Is it... oh my, is it _Dimitri?_ Has he already confessed?”

“No!” Annette stomped her foot against the ground, then caught herself, biting down on her lip. “It’s...” She took one more deep breath before looking Mercedes in the eyes. “It’s you, Mercie.”

Mercedes paused, the world around her shifting to Annette truly at its center. Annette... was in love with her?

She said, without thinking, the first words that formed in her mind. “Well. This is unexpected.”

“Ugh, I knew it!” Annette groaned, looking like she wanted nothing more than to find the nearest pillow she could scream into. “I didn’t want to say anything before, because there was a war going on, and we all had bigger problems, and even before we had that fight, it was obvious you had a thing for the professor, and -”

“Wait, Annie.” Mercedes reached up and clasped Annette’s hands in her own, rising to stand face-to-face with her. “First of all, I don’t think there’s a single one of us who didn’t have a crush on the professor. I got over mine long before I could tell that she and Dorothea were only a matter of time.”

Annette cautiously laughed. “I guess that’s true. Although, I figured mine was just that I looked up to the professor, and that I wanted her approval - until I realized I felt it for you too. And that what I was feeling didn’t seem like the friendship I have with Ingrid, or even Felix.”

“I agree.” Mercedes smiled as she looked down at the other woman, cupping her face in her hands. “Annie, I... I think I’ve loved you, too. For so long now, that I never even thought to question it. You couldn’t ask me to name the day or time it became that way, but I know so much of my life has been fear and uncertainty. And the only times I haven’t been afraid, haven’t ever questioned if what I’m doing is the right thing, have been when I’m with you. That includes this.”

Mercedes had no ring, no dowry or standing she could promise. Just the sweet kiss that she gently placed on Annette’s lips. Annette shifted to the tips of her toes to better meet her, falling completely into Mercedes’ embrace. When they broke apart only to breathe, Annette still wrapped in Mercedes’ arms, there were tears in her blue eyes.

“I’ve spent enough time apart from you, Mercie. We fought so hard for Dimitri, and for the Kingdom. Now... I don’t ever want us to be separated again.”

“I know.” Mercedes held her close, close enough to almost make up for five years of never knowing. “I refuse to even imagine a world that would send us our separate ways once more.”

“Then you have to make me a promise.” Annette’s smile in that moment was something Mercedes would have started another war of her own to preserve. “I don’t trust anyone else to do it. You have to be in charge of baking the wedding cake!”

Mercedes laughed, the sound of her happiness filling the late summer air. “It’s a promise, Annie. That, and so much more.”


End file.
